Plans to set up a formal twinning agreement between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv have been dropped because some members of the city council oppose the idea.

Mayor Eberhard van der Laan withdrew the plan after left-wing green party GroenLinks, the Labour party and the Socialists said they could not support the tie-up.

A number of other organisations also said the move is inappropriate given the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and their fear the conflict could spill over to the Netherlands.

There should be no twin city deal ‘as long as Israel occupies Palestine, structurally infringes human rights and continues its settlement policy’, said Rutger Groot Wassink, leader of the left-wing green party GroenLinks.

Van der Laan now plans to visit both Tel Aviv and Ramallah to see if the city councils can work together instead.